


Shower the People

by CitrusVanille



Series: Shower the People [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-26
Updated: 2006-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-13 17:57:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4531560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CitrusVanille/pseuds/CitrusVanille
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of drabbles. MWPP era. What do our five favorites do in the shower?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Singin' in the Rain

James Potter likes to shower at night.

It’s the only sensible time, really. He’s always felt slightly unnerved by those who can climb in between nice clean sheets to sleep when they’re covered in sweat and grime after a full day of classes (er, pranks) and work (er, pranks), and a full evening of flying around playing Quidditch. He likes to be clean when he flies off to Dreamland on his prized broomstick.

Showering at night has other benefits, though, besides merely satisfying a desire to be clean when he sleeps. When he showers before bed, the other boys in the dorm are still awake, and are therefore much less likely to threaten death, or at least severe bodily harm, as payment for rousing them from their precious slumber, when he gives in to his favorite showering pastime.

James likes to sing in the shower. Loudly. Off-key.

Well, James doesn’t like to sing off-key, but, despite the caustic comments of his so-called friends, it’s not his fault. He’s tone deaf. Remus once told him, in a rare display of frustration, that he wouldn’t know the right notes if they jumped out of the bushes and tried to clobber him. Another time, Sirius had snidely remarked that the hazel-eyed boy couldn’t carry a tune outside to burry it, which was really a shame, since he had murdered it so spectacularly.

Over the years, though, James’s horrendous singing has merely become one of the things his friends accept about him, just as he accepts their quirks. They tease him about it, but they mean their jibes no more viciously than he means his. Tit for tat.

Peter turns into a rat. The slightly rotund boy has an inordinate fondness for onions, and all sweats, and has a strange affinity for rubber ducks.

Remus reads too much (though if you call him on it, he will merely give you a look that says clearly ‘there’s no such thing as reading too much, you ill-mannered, immature, uneducated, unrefined, barbaric, boisterous _brat_ , now leave me to my books’). He wakes up early and seems to actually _like_ it. He takes things too seriously (except for Sirius himself, of course), studies too zealously, and is far too prudent for any self-respecting Marauder’s good. And, of course, he’s a werewolf, but no one, not even the renowned James Potter, would ever dare to rag him about that… except for Sirius, of course.

Sirius, well… Sirius is a pureblood, but so is James, they’re related, after all; second cousins three times removed, or third cousins twice removed on some side or other, something like that, they’ve never bothered trying to properly navigate the twisted pathways of their kinship, though they could easily just look it up. And besides, James knows better than to bring up Sirius’s family. As for other mockable material, well… James is a good enough friend to keep it to himself; it’s not all that funny anyway, when he thinks about it.

So James graces his friends with his off-key voice. Loudly. He does like to sing loudly. And every once in a while, the others even deign to join in.

**Next: The Rat**


	2. Do De Rubber Duck

Peter Pettigrew doesn’t like to take showers.

That is, he likes to take baths. He’s very fond of his comforts, and baths – particularly well-heated bubble baths – are very comfortable. They also provide him an opportunity to snack, which is one of his favorite things in the world to do, and to allow his inner child out to play. Quite literally, actually, as he has gathered a formidable collection of rubber ducks over the years.

Peter started collecting rubber ducks (commonly known as rubber duckies) when he was very young. His mother had thought they were cute. Peter couldn’t help but agree. His first had been yellow, as was traditional, but over the years, he has branched out. He has rubber duckies in all colors and sizes, from tiny green ducks he can hide in a single hand to giant ducks (or monstrosities, as James calls them) that are covered in pink and white hearts (St. Valentine’s gifts from his mother).

Peter takes his baths with his ducks at night. That gives him time to enjoy himself without having to rush to get ready for classes, and he fully appreciates being able to sleep until the last minute in the morning.

The mousy-haired boy likes to soak and listen to his ducks quack as they paddle happily around him. James is usually in one of the shower stalls, invariably singing loudly and off-key. Peter often hums along, but quietly, so as not to disturb the Quidditch hero. Besides, it’s more fun to watch the ducks try to out-squawk the messy-haired song-assassin than to try to learn the words himself.

**Next: The Werewolf**


	3. Think Too Much

Remus Lupin likes to think in the shower.

To be perfectly honest, Remus likes to think everywhere. It’s what he does. He’s never been able to turn his brain off, though he has tried on more than one occasion, if only to please his friends.

But Remus enjoys thinking in the shower. He showers in the morning, before his dorm-mates wake up. He’s an early riser, always has been. It’s quiet in the morning, when the castle is still wrapped in dreams. There’s no one to talk to him, or to sing loudly, off key, or to splash around with odd rubber toys that vaguely resemble Muggle rubber duckies. It’s just Remus and the pressurized spray, and his thoughts.

His thoughts aren’t always easy, or even pleasant, but when he’s in the shower, he can handle them. He knows he won’t be distracted, and he has as long as he wants to soak and turn things over in his head.

He thinks about everything. He thinks about school, and how sorry he’ll be to leave, though he’s excited to see the world. He thinks about the work he has to do, the tests he has coming up, the essays he has to write. He thinks about the potion he spilt last class, or the one he knows he’s going to spill next class, if he’s lucky enough to not blow up the cauldron first. He thinks about his parents, and how supportive they are, despite his… abnormalities. He thinks about the last full moon, and the next full moon.

He thinks about his friends.

He thinks of James, Quidditch player extraordinaire, talented wizard, proud animagus, always ready with a joke or a prank, always trying to get Lily’s attention.

He thinks of Lily, always trying to ignore James, despite what she might really want, always determined to prove that Muggle-born witches can be just as clever as purebloods, always ready to lend a hand.

He thinks of Peter, always in need of a hand, though too shy to ask anyone but his closest friends, always with something in his mouth, whether food, pens, or his fingernails, desperate to prove himself to everyone, especially James and Sirius.

He thinks of Sirius, funny, loyal, arrogant when he knows he’s in the spotlight, sweet when he thinks no one’s watching, with his long hair and bright grey eyes…

Remus likes to think in the shower. He thinks about everything. In the shower, it’s safe. But some thoughts have no place outside the small stall, and he knows this, so he enjoys them, and savors them, while the water rains down.

**Next: The Dog**


	4. I Know What Boys Like (a.k.a. Hot Stuff)

Sirius Black showers in the morning.

He does it out of necessity, because otherwise he wouldn’t be properly awake until after lunch. And because he’s a hormonally-driven teenaged boy. He can’t help it. He’s only human, after all, pureblood or not, and he dreams, and wakes up, and showers. Hot showers when he has time, cold when he doesn’t.

It’s perfectly normal, what Sirius likes to do in the shower. He’d be the first to tell anyone that. ‘Wanking’ (as James so eloquently puts it) is a natural part of any boy’s life. And Sirius is more than happy to discuss natural tendencies with anyone who might ask. Sirius is loud, proud, and confident, and everyone knows it. However, if the conversation becomes more specific, Sirius will mumble something about buying magazines and change the subject faster than a Snitch can disappear – subtly, of course.

The disinherited Black heir had been convinced for ages that he was a “late bloomer.” The other boys in his year (with the exception of Remus, of course) had all begun noticing girls way back in third year, some even earlier. He’d listened to their talk, and joked around with them, but had never been particularly interested in the subject matter. He’d started wanking, but he never had any specific images of girls in his head when he did it, despite the magazines he and James would smuggle into the dorm to pore over. Sirius understood that the busty witches were attractive, but _he_ never felt attracted to them, or turned on by them, though it was clear the other boys were (with the exception of Remus, who refused to look at what he referred to as ‘degrading art’ – but Remus was friends with Lily, and got on well enough with the other girls they knew, so it wasn’t particularly surprising that he would feel such things were offensive, and, besides, Remus was always much more prudish than the other boys). If Sirius was honest with himself, he was far more turned on by his _broomstick_ than by the scantily clad females his friends drooled over, and, despite its shiny finish, he _knew_ the broom wasn’t nearly as aesthetically pleasing as the women other boys gawked at.

Then, in fourth year, Sirius realized that maybe he wasn’t such a late bloomer after all. Maybe he was just looking for temptation in the wrong places. Walking in on two boys making out in the locker room had brought to light a whole new genre of thought, and, for the first time, Sirius had something _real_ to think about in the shower. After that, though he continued to joke around with his friends, Sirius had stopped trying to find girls appealing.

Now Sirius has something else to find appealing, and he doesn’t have to look far to find it.

He can often hear Remus moving around in the shower stall next to him, and sometimes he runs into the other boy coming in or going out of the bathroom, but Remus never speaks to him on these occasions, clearly lost in his own world. Sirius wonders what it’s like there, which is a much safer pastime than any other wonderings Sirius might have concerning his lycanthropic friend.

He tries to keep his thoughts hidden. It’s safer that way. He doesn’t want to risk losing his best friend. James is the only one who knows, and the messy-haired boy has sworn to keep silent on the matter.

Sirius never speaks of his cogitations, and he struggles to keep his impulses under control when he’s with his friends.

But when he’s in the shower, Sirius is willing to indulge, that’s what the shower’s for, after all. But what it is he indulges in… he’d never tell.

**Next: The Girl**


	5. Coming Clean

Lily Evans loves to shower.

She likes to shower in the morning. She likes to shower in the evening. It doesn’t matter when.

She likes to stand under the spray and soak away… everything.

She washes off the sweat and dirt that even the cleanest person accumulates during the day. She washes away her cares and worries. She washes away school – classes and work. She washes away her stress. She washes away fights with her friends and irritation with her sister. She washes away the expectations of her parents and her teachers. She washes away her tears.

Lily likes to be clean. She likes the feel of the shampoo rinsing out of her hair, and of the razorblade gliding smoothly across her skin.

She stands under the showerhead and lets the water beat down on her neck and shoulders and back, easing the tense muscles and soothing her very soul.

The things she wants that she can’t have, for whatever reason, don’t hurt quite as much when she can drown her thoughts in soap and steam. She lets the water fill her senses, its thunder in her ears, its taste in her mouth. Eyes closed against the soap she can smell lavender and lily-of-the-valley. The scents and sounds and tastes ease her mind as the pressure eases her body.

The water cleanses her, and when she steps out of the shower, relaxed and sparkling clean, she has opened a new page that’s just waiting for her to write on it. And if she spills her ink, it’s okay, because she can always wash it off next time.

**End**


End file.
